Page 81 of Stick Side
“You know more about astronomy than I do, so I’m hardly in a position to judge.” Her tone was light with only the tiniest touch of self-deprecation.
Ben felt his lips turn up into an answering smile. There was no disputing Melody was an intelligent and accomplished woman. And yet, she gave every impression she was comfortable with the fact that, while she certainly knew a great deal, she didn’t know everything. Self-confident, but humble. It was a combination he found sexy as hell.
“We can’t all know everything about everything,” he observed genially.
“That’s true.” She laughed, the sound like tinkling bells. “But I wouldn’t mind having a photographic memory and trying to learn as much about everything as I could.”
He canted his head, his expression thoughtful. “I can appreciate that, but you’d still have to be exposed to information to know it.”
Melody’s lips twisted into what might almost have been considered a frown but somehow wasn’t. “Well, aren’t you an insufferable know-it-all,” she observed with a gentle, teasing poke to his side.
“Only on some topics,” he ceded, poking her back playfully.
“Okay, Mr. Smarty Pants,” she teased, “what other star info do you have up your sleeve?”
“Well,” he said, puffing out his chest and making an effort to sound like a scholar.
Melody laughed at his theatrics. He wasn’t sure if it was the sheer delight that lit her features, bringing an extra sparkle to her eyes and a curve to her smile, but there was something about making her laugh that made him feel like he was ten feet tall and invincible. It was a feeling he could get used to.
He cleared his throat in an effort to speak beyond the unexpected sentiment weighing down his chest. “Do you see the two stars that make up the outside edge of the Big Dipper’s bowl?” he resumed.
Seemingly unaware of the deep thoughts coursing through his head, Melody shifted until her head grazed his, the better to see what he was seeing. “I think I see them.”
He wrapped an arm around her because he could. There was something about touching her that he craved. If he were honest, there were a lot of things about her he craved.
“If you draw a line from those pointer stars,” he continued, savoring the warm press of her body against his, “and go about five times the distance between them, you’ll hit the top of the handle of the Little Dipper.”
Melody drew in a quick, excited breath. “I see it!” she exclaimed happily.
“That’s the North Star,” he said, dropping the exaggerated scholarly tone he’d adopted. “It’s used for navigation because True North lies directly beneath it. The Big Dipper rotates around the North Star, so it will sometimes look like it’s on its side or even upside down. No matter. Its relationship to the North Star never changes and it will always dependably point the way to it.”
Something electric coursed through his body as Melody snuggled closer to him. “That’s kind of magical,” she enthused in a voice that made him think of deep kisses and tender touches.
“It is, isn’t it?” he agreed in a voice that had grown husky.
Without warning, he fell onto his back and pulled her down with him.
“Ahhh!” Melody squealed. She leveraged her arms against his chest in an effort to stabilize herself.
His body shook with laughter as she flailed. He laughed all the harder when, milliseconds later, her body crashed down inelegantly onto his.
“What gives?” she demanded, slapping a hand against his chest without any real force.
He moved his hand over top of hers in the event she didn’t like his answer and decided to whack him again. More than anything, though, he was simply enjoying the press of her hand against his chest too much to lose the intimate contact just yet.
He massaged her hand with gentle strokes as he explained, “You said you thought the North Star’s connection to the Big Dipper was kind of magical. And I couldn’t help but think there was something rather magical about you, too.”
A single sculpted brow arched dubiously. Her skeptical expression looked almost odd on such an angelic face. “So, you decided to tip me over in order to see if I would point toward True North when tipped onto my side, too?”
He chortled and hugged her close. “No.” His breath caught for a moment as flickers of candlelight shone against her delicate, heart-stopping features. “I couldn’t resist trying to lay claim toyourmagic.”
Her eyes flashed and darkened. His heart thumped a steady tempo at the carnal awareness he saw reflected in their rich depths.
Melody shrieked again when he reversed their positions, flipping her onto her back, his body suspended over hers. He was careful to cradle her head since the last thing he wanted was for her to get hurt.
Lust coursed through his body at the way their legs pretzeled together and her pelvis nestled intimately against his. He was using the arm not protecting her skull to hold himself up so he wouldn’t crush her, but their position was only serving to highlight the way his groin was pressing into hers.
Looking at her sprawled out beneath him, her lips soft and dewy, her eyes lit with passion, and her hair fanned around her like an exotic halo, he wasn’t surprised to feel himself lengthen against her. There was no way Melody couldn’t have felt it, what with their bodies pressed so intimately against one another’s.
